Michelle Tant

A lot has been said in the media of late about our Carbon Footprint – the principle being that every human activity either directly or indirectly causes greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere and this contributes to climate change. I’d like to reduce my carbon footprint but its actually really hard! Funnily enough there is one thing I do which has a zero carbon footprint (CF), and that is breastfeeding! The production of baby milk substitutes has a high CF due to the rearing of the cows, the production of the cows feed, manufacture and transportation of the milk powder, the manufacture of the product itself, then there’s the packaging – tins, plastic etc. The long shelf life of formula milk means that a hard wearing container is essential. When I sit here and breastfeed, my carbon footprint is minimal… I say minimal because I do admittedly need to breathe… #justsayin But as I’ve already said, living greener doesn’t just have to mean drinking out of used yoghurt pots and we...

As a mother to three gorgeous children, the way I look at the world has changed somewhat. As I’ve explained before, I’ve always been concerned about world and environmental issues, but now it’s not just about the world that I live in, it’s the world that my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will live in. More to the point, will there be a world left for them? In my attempts to live a greener, more environmentally aware everyday life I don’t always succeed, I am not a perfectly green person but I am doing the best I can. I guess what I’m trying to say is just do what you can; whatever you do, it is one more person doing one more thing and all those one things add up. This is not a wishy washy philosophy, there is power in numbers and I really believe that. It does still mean of course that I have to get up off my chair and do something. Here in the UK, the buzz phrase for reducing waste is REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE . How can I REDUCE? • The landfills in the world can’t take...

I was brought up to have an awareness of the world around me, my Nan was a green campaigner, specifically protesting against the development of nuclear weapons and so I feel like it’s a part of me somehow, in my genes if you like! So it was no surprise to my mother I would imagine when I came home with the leaflet from a petition I’d signed to stop the testing on animals for cosmetics etc. I was as furious as any 12 year old can be and I started writing letters, to the Prime Minister, to the cosmetics companies, to my local paper, anyone who would listen, but mainly those who wouldn’t. At times, as a young person, I felt utterly overwhelmed by the enormity of the issues of animal cruelty, what could I do? As I grew up I carried on with the letters etc and a couple of protests at school, I learnt about other issues going on in the world, injustices towards children in the developing world, continuing prejudices on my own doorstep… It really sometimes feels like too much. How is it that ...

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The last time I made a genuine effort to lose weight was before my eldest was born and I lost 33lbs. Quite impressive even if I do say so myself. Now I have around 14lbs to lose, the byproduct of birthing 3 children. Not that I can blame them entirely of course, but everyone needs a fall-guy right? A small note on the picture I chose for this post - only I know the enormous amount of willpower going on in that picture of my son and his birthday cake! It's not a trait I possess in spades, nor a trait that his Father, who does admittedly have more than me, has passed to him. What a little angel. I absolutely see the benefit and yes necessity of losing that weight and getting into shape but my inclination seems to have packed its slimline bag and trotted off into the chocolate laden sunset, leaving me wondering whether 'just one' makes a difference. Believe it or not, I used to run. I ran the 5k women's challenge in Londons Hyde Park. It was a brilliant experience...

Now I only need to write essays for fun! Yes, its all done. All that's left is to put the folder in the post. It's out of my hands. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the writing aspect of the course, as I did immensely, its just I feel ready now for a period of writing without having to worry about getting my references perfect. Or in fact, write without referring to anyone. Love blogging. The relief is palpable. I sat down this evening without that moment of thinking "I should be writing an essay". So now I can start looking forward. I have a break planned, as in, I'm not starting teaching until I've started back to work, settled in a little, when life has started to get used to the new rhythm if my being back at 'normal' work will bring. I'm looking forward to teaching, to start building to my own experience, to improve, to become a better breastfeeding counsellor. To start working with women. I've said it before and I'll ...

The last time I was served Gnocchi it was with a cheese sauce and it was almost enough to put me off for life. So it was with a certain amout of trepidation that I had a go at this recipe. It's very easy to put together and takes about 45 mins or so. You'll need... Salmon fillets 2 x Courgette sliced diagonally A red onion in wedges A lemon in wedges too 400g of potato gnocchi Handful of olives Handful of fresh rocket Fresh parsley to garnish Olive oil Pepper Put the courgette, red onion, lemon, gnocchi & olives in a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and put in a preheated to 200'c oven for 30 mins. Take out and stir the vegetables then put the salmon fillets on top, sprinkle with pepper and put back into the oven until the Salmon is cooked, around 10-20 mins, depending on the size of the fish. Take out, set aside the cooked Salmon while you mix in the rocket. Serve the vegetables onto plates, place the fish on top and garnish with the parsley. Eat and enjoy! I was c...

What a beautiful way to announce the birth of their child. And might I say a welcome relief to those of us who have felt like breastfeeding advocacy has been an uphill battle this week. (the BMJ have a lot to answer for, not least my raised blood pressure...). So congratulations to them both, I wish Miranda and their baby a long and fulfilling breastfeeding journey. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Your new baby never seems to stop feeding and people seem to be giving conflicting advice. Some say baby feeds so often because you don't have enough milk - baby is hungry so best to think about topping up... But consider this. What if, your baby was a human being with feelings, moods, preferences and social needs as well as physiological needs? Think for a moment about when you eat and drink. Is every time simply about nutritional value? No! We sit and eat together, we go out for coffees together. It's often a social part of our lives. Babies are social beings with social needs. Sometimes we just would like a chocolate bar... why? Just because. Take a piece of paper and give it a couple if headings; 'Time', 'food/drink consumed' and 'Duration'. Now think about a 24 hour period in a normal day according to you. Then note down every single thing that passes your lips, it may look a little like this. 6.45am - Coffee - 3 mins 8am - cereal and frui...

I saw a blog prompt courtesy of @socialmoms "what's the one thing you couldn't live without for a week and why" and it captured my interest. My first thought was my phone. Like most people now, its not just a phone, its my access to the world... email, Facebook, Twitterland, texting, talking, calendar, note taking, blogging, internet... I even have my daily Bible reading program on it as well as the mini games like Angry Birds and Sudoku I play in the middle of the night while breastfeeding. Not forgetting that its my camera too; I het to instantly share gorgeous pics of my beautiful children with my family who don't live close. So not really an inconsequential thing in my life if truth be told. I immediately felt terrible about that. Surely there's more to me than my Android phone! I could live without it, I know I could. And why am I left with the nagging suspicion I sound like some kind of addict?! Is being surgically attached to my phone an addiction...

I'm a Christian. A Christian mummy. I know that my calling right now (and indeed for the rest of my life) is being the best mother I can be. But what about the rest? I know I have other 'things' in my life - the breastfeeding counselling, writing etc, but what about the conviction I've had all my Christian life that I'm meant to be doing something. Else that is. I've read Proverbs 31 inside out and I long to be the woman there, industrious, creative, an excellent wife and mother but it is very easy to hold Mrs Proverbs up as a yardstick and find myself so incredibly lacking. God loves me, weaknesses and all, I have no doubt about that but I know I have more in me than I'm giving out right now. I was prayed for in church this morning and he said that God does make almost 'allowances' for the childbearing years and don't hear me wrong, but knowing that doesn't make me much less frustrated. I suppose desire wise I'm in a good place...

Had a nasty surprise to start the day when I was unpleasantly woken up by the radio. I dislike early mornings at the best of times but to wake up to the news that comments in the British Medical Journal appear to undermine breastfeeding... bad start to my day. The media are quick to spot a sensationalist story when they see one and so the headlines quickly became 'breastfeeding not best for first 6 months'. Utterly inaccurate interpretations of the comments anyway, but no doubt the outcome has had formula milk companies rubbing their hands in money grubbing glee. An attack on breastfeeding is a direct hit in favour of baby milk companies who ultimately, no matter how much the advertising tells us that they have our babies health at heart, only really care about their bottom line. 3 out of the 4 contributors to the BMJ article are funded by, yes you guessed it, baby milk companies. They stand to gain financially by being mouthpieces for these immoral and unethical compa...

There's a few things at the moment that any Brit can be drawn on. Snow (aka any weather whatsoever, what can we say, we are a bit of an authority on it... weather that is. We are crap at snow) and the economy. It cost me £70 to fill my tank with Diesel last week. My food shopping bill has gone up in the last year by approximately £30 per month (and I shop around). My insurance for house, car and pets has gone up. Tax credits are being cut, and child benefit will follow undoubtedly within the next couple if years. My wage is frozen. I'm not blaming the company for that, but it really is a sign if the times when rather than being annoyed at no yearly wage increase, we're simply relieved to have a job at all. So how do the big banks justify their massive bonuses when the normal people are struggling so much to simply lead normal lives? Their profits are creamed off the UK taxpayers and its simply not right. I'd love to see them feed a family of 5 on my budget. ...

Today, 3 years after making the decision, I took the plunge, put my money where my mouth is and signed up to a writing course. There are a couple of reasons it took this long, one major one being I was already on a course which required me to write and I really find that writing uses lot of my creative energy and I didn't have 'enough left of me' after the essays I've been writing, to devote to creative writing. So here I am. The essays are done, I am well and truly set on that road that the course put me on and I'm happy with it. So happy in fact that I felt now was the right time to do this. I know that there is a school of thought that says if you want to write, then write. You don't need to do a course, but for me, the structure will be helpful so that is behind my reasoning for signing up... that and the fact I have no idea if I'm really any good or not at this! Another reason for going for it is that I turned 30 last year and I feel that if I ...

When I was pregnant with my 3rd child, I mentioned to my midwife that I had an interest in having a homebirth. For a couple of panic stricken moments she simply stared at me. On that basis alone you would assume that she was anti-homebirth. But I happen to know she's not. Her reaction was purely to do with my birthing history. My first child was born by cesarean section. When I got pregnant that first time, I was full of plans for a natural birth. My own mother had given birth naturally with no problems, 5 times. In fact of all the women in my life I only knew one who'd had a section and that was following severe complications. So when it came about that I had to have a cesarean as a result of Jayden being in a transverse breech lie, I felt that my body had let me down without so much as a murmur of objection. They tried to turn him with an External Cephalic Version but no joy. I was booked to have him ejected through the fire escape a week later. Incidentally I went ...

So here goes, another attempt at a recipe. It's really easy as even I could do it and its already established that I am no culinary goddess. I was given some chicken breasts which is how this came about, I can't normally afford to buy them, so I thought what could I do and here is what happened. (it looks pretty good too) This makes 4 Kievs so you need 4 chicken breasts (well duh) First I made the stuffing. 3 tbsp breadcrumbs 4 tbsp grated cheese 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp herbs of your choice, I used Basil Mix it all up into a paste and set aside. Topping 1 cup of breadcrumbs 2 rashers of crispy fried Bacon chopped finely 3 tbsp grated cheese I also chucked in 1 tbsp of crispy onion bits I happened to have in the cupboard You'll need these things to finish them up 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard How to make 'em. * Using a Sharp knife, cut into the chicken breasts creating 'pockets' * Divide the stuffing and push into the...

A few blog ideas bumbling around my sleep deprived brain currently but I didn't feel I could let this moment pass without a thought for the twin boys who were aborted in Australia for being the wrong gender. I would definitely consider myself to be pro-life so this would come as no surprise to those that know me. But I do think that this goes beyond a simple pro-life argument. Currently most places that have laws particular to abortion say that abortion can be granted if there are health risks, including psychiatric health, to the mother, or if the fetus/baby has serious health problems. (obviously there are great variations across the world, but this is I would say a simple catch all). So where does aborting babies because they are the wrong gender fit into that? The parents had incredibly sadly lost a baby girl in the past and as a mother I can only begin to imagine their heartbreak. They have 3 other sons and when they found out they were pregnant with twin boys th...

There has been a bit of a revival around this subject over the last few years. However its not a new topic by any means. Before breastfeeding books and gurus, new mothers had to rely on their instincts and on the women around them. Women and girls would have seen breastfeeding happening all the time, it was perfectly natural and to be blunt, there was no other choice. Babies who were not breastfed, either by their own mother or by another lactating woman in the group, would die. Choice was not a luxury of the pre modern woman. So back to instincts. Suzanne Colson wrote about biological nurturing and the principle of breastfeeding being a continuation of the baby being in the womb (source: Womb to World, A Metabolic Perspective in Midwifery Today, 2002) and I've long found the idea that a baby is born with all the 'tools' it needs to breastfeed truly fascinating. Mothers have historically misread the signs of a newborn baby. Where thrashing hands and feet are seen, ...

Reuben started his first afternoon session at nursery today. He'll be going Tuesday to Thursday afternoons then 8.45-3.15 on Fridays. He loves it there and has been getting on so well and then today we arrived, he was excitedly taking off his coat, throwing his bag in the box then went to the name tag table. He got there and stopped. Stood staring at it blankly. It took me a moment to see what was wrong, and a millisecond to see what was coming next. He turned and looked at me, confusion written all over his little face. He looked back at the table. Frozen. He literally couldn't move on because he was stalled. His next move had been unexpectedly taken from him and he was now totally thrown. Surely Mummy can save the day? Apparently not. I asked what happened to his name tag and they replied that they hadn't been able to find it and they'll probably have to make a new one. Tried explaining that one to a child who has limited understanding and even less communic...

I'd like to say I'm surprised bit unfortunately I'm not. Today is the day that Facebooks double standards strike again. The Leaky Boob, a wonderful online breastfeeding support community has had its pages disabled. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable for a page to stay online that gratuitously celebrates leering at breasts, but a community of like minded women supporting one another is deemed obscene. What's going on? In many countries in the world now its illegal to move on a breastfeeding woman (UK, Indonesia, some US States to name a few) so why can't Facebook get with the program? Facebook listen to us! There is nothing obscene about breastfeeding! We show less boob than most clothes you'll see out and about on a club night in town. Its been amazing to see the wave of support come out, with literally 1000's of people signing up to temporary pages in support of The Leaky Boob and its still early days. Never underestimate the power of commun...

I couldn't quite bring myself to type 'resolutions' as I invariably disgrace myself by failing miserably. So this year I'm going to do things a little different. I have one, yes ONE proper new years resolution. * Stop biting my nails. As my mother says, "you're 30 now, its time you gave that up". The rest of my 'new years etc' are as follows. The theory being that by not having a list I can't fail. How very defeatist of me... * Find a bible reading plan that actually works for me. Not sure why I end up bombing out on this with such alarming regularity. * Finally finish my daughters bedroom. It has such marvellous pink potential. The fact that she won't be in it for a while yet is neither here nor there, its half done and as such is making ME feel half done. Annoying. * Perhaps add a bit more structure to my blog. Eg, Feeding Friday, something or other Saturday. Hmm, may need some more work but you get the general idea. More o...

Clare bit her pencil and she read back her list of New Years Resolutions. The usual suspects appeared, as expected, year after year, flowing unprovoked from her pencil tip and of course year after year, here she was, writing the same list again. She broke off to get herself a cuppa and stood staring out of the kitchen window. On this clear Saturday morning there was a slight mist and a glaze of frost on the grass, transforming the garden into a sparkly winter wonderland. Of course the garden was on the list again, ‘keep garden tidy’ was up there with ‘buy a composter’. Like it was every year, no surprise there then. Likewise, ‘eat less biscuits’, ‘keep on top of housework’, ‘stop biting nails’, ‘do more arty things with the kids’. The latter had actually made a valiant attempt at sticking power, the potato prints and homemade cards lasting well into March but even that had trailed off into leaving them to it with the posterpaints, albeit with a brief foray into toilet tube rocket...

That's how this whole thing with Reuben feels right now. An eclectic mix of the two. He had an ENT appt yesterday (Ear, Nose & Throat) in Eastbourne hospital. He was seen by the consultant rather than the registrar due to his severe speech delay and after checking his ear drums again, he said he wants to schedule grommets surgery straight away, can we come in next week. He said that though Reuben can hear generally, its muffled, so not much clarity and this is likely to be having an effect on his speech development. The window of real opportunity for speech development is 0-5 years and he said that as his speech is so affected he doesn't want to delay at all. But here's the kicker. We are whizzing through some surgery stuff and heart issues are mentioned and I asked would it be ok... consultant looks at his notes... there's nothing there about Reubens heart. So he then says obviously he can't do the surgery without a go ahead from the consultant anes...